SYCAMORE TWP. - Sixth-graders at Yavneh Day School see Iraq as a desert country in the Middle East with dust storms, camels and a sexist government headed by Saddam Hussein.

        But when they finish studying the country, its culture, geography and history, those early perceptions may change, said Nancy Abineri, their teacher.

        “We're focusing on what they think they know right now,” Ms. Abineri said Friday as the students began a six-week study of Iraq.

        With the threat of war with Iraq looming, Ms. Abineri adjusted her curriculum to study the country now, rather than later in the year.

        Teachers across the Tristate are incorporating the developing situation into current events, government and social studies classes.

        At Purcell-Marian High School in East Walnut Hills, juniors studying U.S. history are talking about the situation in Iraq, questioning if, why, how and when the United States may attack Iraq.

        “We have found ways to compare the "war powers' given to President Bush with the "war powers' taken by President Lincoln during the Civil War,” Purcell-Marian teacher Jim Siciliano said.

        In Fairfield, Dan Jacobs spends at least 10 minutes each day talking about Iraq in his American Government class, taken by seniors.

        “What we see developing - war powers, legislation, diplomacy - is everything we're supposed to talk about. It's all over the news,” Mr. Jacobs said.

        “We've been following as President Bush has tried to convince the (American) people, Congress and the United Nations of the need to go to war with Iraq.”

        National polls, Mr. Jacobs said, show nearly 60 percent of Americans back the president, while 55 percent of his students do.

        Jacob Shidler, 18, said each class discussion has gotten him interested in the situation and has prompted discussions at home.

        “Before I started class I occasionally watched the news,” said Jacob, a Fairfield High School senior. “I watch all the time now and read about it in the newspaper. It's (class) really brought to my attention everything going on and how it affects me. I think his (President Bush) pure goal is to go into Iraq and take Saddam out.”

        At Yavneh, the sixth-graders will take their studies more slowly, trying to separate their impressions from facts about Iraq and its people and its relationship with neighboring countries and the United States.

        Students began doing that this week by placing Iraq on large playground balls marked to simulate a globe.

        In small groups, the students used sticky notes to mark where they thought the United States was in the world and where Iraq was in comparison.

        “We know a lot from the news,” said Jeremy Spiegel, 12. “I didn't really think about (Iraq) until now.”

        E-mail suek@infi.net

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